discussion log

list of endings

This is very, very late. I was going to do this walkthrough earlier but I thought it wasn't necessary, so now I just want to yap about the behind-the-scenes of each ending. I don't recommend reading this if you haven't completed the game, unless you're struggling to get certain endings!

captive on the back of the earth

This was the first ever ending I had thought of when I conceptualised the game. Somewhat, the balcony does resemble "a way out", but I didn't focus on it because to me, it wasn't really important. If I had to pick a "true end" for this game, I would pick this one.

During the initial planning, Otogi was still alive when they entered the hotel and the premise was more of "only one person can make it out alive". I planned for him to say something like "If one of us do make it out, we'll get treated as a murderer or put in a facility (due to the absurd scenario). Why not just die here?" What happens next is the same, literally drinking and fucking around until you die. Honestly, I want that.

captive taken away

Sort of a last minute ending. It was around this point I felt that Otogi being dead should be brought up, branching towards getting sucked dry or finding out. This is the getting sucked dry ending. Actually, I was surprised that most people got this as their first ending. One of my play testers (who also got this initially) said that in romance games people usually try to cater to the love interest first. That was when I realised I've forgotten this is a "romance" game. This should be where I start talking about my view on love and romance, but I think it's quite blatant in the game already.

captive in another world

The actual filler ending in this game. I actually have nothing to say about this one.

captive returning to the soil

This is similar-ish to the back of the earth ending, except Kyu actually knows what's going on this time. Nothing much to add

captive by contract

I was going to merge this with the returning to the soil ending, but it didn't make sense for Kyu to have the same response regardless of what he said to Otogi. I put in the little scene I had in my head from before I even had the idea of the game, of Otogi nearly getting caught out on a date. Before I made Kyu a host, Otogi had a more destructive response to this, but Kyu's new character is better at responding to crisis. The flashback art was inspired that one AkiToya Project Sekai card. Not going to paste that card I don't play the game.

captive, clot, lumps of flesh

I already talked a lot about this ending in the Valentine's Postmortem (tldr: something something one of the first I came up with, something something favourite ending, something something inspired by my personal mental problems), so I'll just talk about what I didn't mention. You probably already caught that it's looping 7 times because it's "captive under floor 7", so here's why I chose the game to be set below the 7th floor.

Originally, the title of the game was "Hotel Misfortune", about two ex-lovers who unfortunately fell for each other and unfortunately still want each other. The idea was that they "didn't make it to the 7th floor" because they could never reach fortune (lucky number 7). The surprising thing is that this game has 7 endings purely out of coincidence -- I wrote all the branches and set an ending where I see fit.

captive in the eternal abyss

This was the one possibility I had considered an ending to let Kyu live, that I ultimately decided against because I don't believe in moving on. Would Otogi believe that Kyu hated him? Or did it matter whether Kyu hated him or not? I think the answers to both questions are no.

Do I have to write a conclusion? Just stop reading. That's all. I'm thinking of doing a short kinetic novel for Otogi's birthday, but what I end up making is really up to chance. I never have a plan.